There were a few sculptors working on a statue. A passerby approached one of them and asked, "What are you doing?" Without even raising his head, he snapped, "Can't you see that I am chirping away at a rock?" He then approached another sculptor and asked him the same thing. Wearily putting down his chisel and hammer, he looked up at the passerby and said with a sigh, "I am trying to earn a livelihood." The passerby approached yet another sculptor. He was chiseling away in the most relaxed way, singing while doing so. When the passerby asked him what he was doing, he smiled cheerfully and replied,"I am creating a sculpture." Saying so, he started singing again and joyfully resumed his work.
The three men were doing the same work, but each had a different attitude. When the first was cursing his lot as he worked, the second did it solely for his survival. In contrast, the third man transformed the same action into a blissful experience.
In a similar way we can turn anything we do into a blissful experience. As we enjoy what we do, we do it better and better and thereby it turns out to be one of the best. When life hands us out tasks, we have no choice but to carry it out. We cannot run away from it unfortunately!. So why not face it with the right attitude and win it over. However when the going gets tough, its just, 'Do your best and let the rest to God!' Because the right attitude, helps us put in our best effort, which inturn draws the grace of Almighty God, who inturn helps us finsh the task... Here's another story you will just love...
There was a soldier, who in the midst of a fierce fight, gets separated from his unit. He tries in vain to fight the enemy by himself. But still, he does his best. At some point he realizes that he cannot stand against anymore and tried his best to stay safe until help arrived. He saw a series of small caves and hid inside one of them. However he soon realized that the enemy army is searching the caves and that he would soon be caught. Having done all he could do, he now sent in a silent prayer... " God, I did everything I could, now please protect me." After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy draw close.
He thought, "Well, I guess God isn 't going to help me out of this one. " Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his cave. As he watched, listening to the enemy searching for him all the while, the spider layered strand after strand of web across the opening of the cave. Suddently he thought. "What I need is a brick wall and what God has sent me is a spider web!"
As the enemy drew closer he watched from the darkness of his hideout and could see them searching one cave after another. As they came to his, he got ready to make his last stand. To his amazement, however, after glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on. Suddenly, he realised that with the spiderweb over the entrance, his cave looked as if no one had entered for quite a while.
"Oh, god, forgive me, " prayed the young man. "I had forgotten that with your grace, a spider's web is stronger than a brick wall."
Well, the battle of Life does seems cruel at times, but there is always a path to victory in any given situation, if only we give it the best we have. Life asks no more from us. And when our part is done, the Almighty who put us in, reveals to us the road to victory... all for just a little effort from our side. And how sad that we refuse to put in even that much- that little much that we CAN DO, when it comes to the battlefield of our Life!
Not to forget... its the Right Attitude that sets us on our path to victory. And as we try to take every step towards the goal, that effort, automatically draws the magic power of grace, which just makes the rest of our going easier. No matter how many steps we are capable of taking, just five or fifty, does not matter, lets take as much as we can, b'cas once we do our part, the rest will be taken care of.... and that would be one sweet acomplishment to be proud of when we turn back in life someday!
